The Baltimore field office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is soon to be permanently closed, along with scores of other HUD field offices across the country.

Staffers have confirmed with their managers that the downtown Baltimore office, which employs about 90 people, is to be shut down.

All who work there will likely be terminated by order of the U.S. DOGE Service, billionaire Elon Musk’s effort to slash federal spending and regulations.

According to a knowledgeable source, who declined to give their name for fear of reprisal, the biggest impact will be a severe slowdown in processing Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans for homebuyers and multi-family projects, one of the Baltimore office’s major functions.

“It doesn’t make any sense to do this in the name of saving money,” the source said. “They finance anything from affordable- to market-rate projects, and they also asset manage them. They actually make money – billions – for the federal government that gets put back into the general fund.”

Created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression, the FHA is one of the main government agencies that offers low down payment mortgages for qualifying homebuyers in the U.S.

The source said eliminating the Baltimore office and transferring cases to other FHA offices will mean it will take longer to receive approvals and resolve issues between the loan originator and the agency.

“Boston or New York are already swamped with servicing the loans,” the source continued.

“Our construction analysts, appraisers, our underwriters, and, most importantly, our asset management who know the market here – those jobs are all going to be eliminated. It is going to make it much more difficult to finance and monitor housing.”

Other functions of the office include Community Planning and Development (CPD), which administers local grants to promote better housing and expanded economic opportunities to low and moderate income persons, and enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing-related activities.

Another loss from the shutdown of the field office will be oversight of Section 8 and voucher housing and local public housing authorities.

“This office administers the money to public housing authorities and keeps a watch over those funds,” the source said. “Now there’s just going to be more opportunity for fraud.”

HUD’s Office of Public Affairs has not yet provided a response to The Brew’s query.

UPDATE: Responding after publication, the HUD Public Affairs Office said “no decisions have been finalized.”

”The department is exploring consolidation while continuing to prioritize service,” officials there told The Brew in an emailed statement.

Devastating Losses

Baltimore HUD employees knew the end was near when posts about field office shutdowns appeared on Reddit and when Seattle, Wash., media reported on Monday that about 150 people in the agency’s regional office were expected to lose their jobs, together with more in Oregon and Idaho.

According to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post, HUD’s entire workforce is projected to drop by about half – from about 8,300 employees to just over 4,000 – with deep cuts in field offices nationwide.

Advocates and current and former employees told The Post that the HUD cuts would “upend housing markets, make homes less affordable and roil mortgage transactions.”

Grants are also on the chopping block.

The Associated Press reports that 162 HUD grants to various organizations are expected to be cut, including those geared toward fair and equal housing.

Programs that will be affected provide funding for disaster recovery, rental subsidies, discrimination investigation and first-time homebuyers.

As for the employees losing their jobs, especially the younger ones, their lives and livelihoods are what has been upended.

“One I know just bought her first house. How is she going to pay the mortgage? Another just had a baby,” the source said. “It’s going to be devastating, personally.”

Employees reportedly stopped into the agency’s 100 South Charles Street offices to retrieve personal items ahead of a possible termination announcement next week.

On Monday, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland went to HUD headquarters in Washington to lead a rally with advocates, union leaders and other lawmakers to protest the Trump Administration’s firings and office closures across the region.

“From the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Woodlawn to Veterans Benefits Administration offices in Baltimore to the Census Bureau in Suitland and NOAA facilities in Silver Spring – these offices are critical to connecting Americans with vital services,” they said.

The two lawmakers tried to enter the building to deliver a letter of protest but the chief of staff to HUD Secretary Scott Turner reportedly told them he was “too busy” to receive their letter.